Lady duped after ASI illegally rents out police quarters flat

Thursday, September 13, 2018

By Zuber Ansari

The trouble for Assistant Police Inspector (ASI) Siraj Shaikh, attached to Santacruz police station, is bound to increase after the session court rejected his bail application, made at Versova police station.

ASI Siraj Shaikh (57), was arrested after an FIR was registered against him by Sultana Ibrahim (42), who resides with her sister in Versova Gaon. Sultana is a computer teacher at an orphanage in Andheri West. Sultana's niece used to attend tuition class in Inlakhs Society on Yari Road, and during that course, Sultana happened to get in contact with Shaikh who was associated with the Santacruz police station's wireless team.

Interestingly, Shaikh has a ground floor apartment in the said compound, however, he lived with his family in another compound in Andheri West. During the same year, Sultana was hunting for a house on rent that too with a heavy deposit. She had planned to further rent out the house on monthly rental basis.

When Siraj came to know about this, he offered to lend his apartment to Sultana at Rs 10 lakh as heavy deposit. He also told her that his apartment already has tenants paying Rs 20 thousand monthly, that means she will not have to look for tenants. Siraj would give her Rs 20,000 every month on the behalf of existing tenants. Sultana found the deal exciting and hassle-free, so she agreed to take the flat on rent.

An agreement was executed between Siraj and Sultana, with Sultana paying Rs 5,0000 for agreement making charges to him. As per the agreement, Sultana paid Rs 9,70,000 to Siraj via cheques. Siraj asked her not the to pay remaining Rs 30,000 and told her that that can be adjusted against the monthly rental amount from the already existing tenants. For seven months Siraj paid her Rs 20,000 but later on he stopped. He even stopped taking her calls.

Sultana decided to visit the house and take the rental money directly from the existing tenants, little did she know that a horrible surprise was awaiting her there. Upon inquiry, she realised that the said apartment belongs to Versova police station, and Siraj has no authority whatsoever to rent the same to anyone. A security guard, on the condition of anonymity, said that the said apartment has been occupied by a police officer's family since two years. The security guard also revealed that he had never heard about Siraj, and did not know anything about him.

She immediately filed an FIR with Versova Police Station. Siraj is trying to get bail but his applications have been rejected. The officer also added that they are also probing whether Siraj has cheated anyone using the same modus operandi, sources added.

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